The second traveling theater project to deal with a socially vital issue was TWO LIGHTS’Purple Breasts, starring Karen Ball, aimed at increasing public awareness of the personal traumas of breast cancer. A harrowing but funny ensemble play by former USM professor Daryl Lindstrom, who herself died of breast cancer, Purple Breasts has brought its empathetic message all around the state.

Civics mean something else altogether in the deep dark forest, and dramatizing this with great timing and vocal prowess was GOOD THEATER’S recent Into the Woods. Under the direction of Brian Allen, Sondheim’s sharp and difficult musical was nothing short of enchanting.

The scariest creatures in RUNNING OVER PRODUCTIONS’ latest, Wharf Rats, were a lot more cryptic, projected as they were (perhaps) by strange and dangerous minds. The debut full-length script by Keith Anctil, directed by Ariel Francoeur, had it all: creeping terror, raunch, and awesome sound design.

Last, but far from least: This fall, USM mounted a chillingly beautiful exploration of human wildness. The modern classic Equus, directed by Walter Stump and starring John Coons and the marvelous Ian Carlsen, was perhaps the most penetrating show of the year.

Also notable in 2006 were the new homes of venerable two theater groups: ACORN PRODUCTIONS joined the other artsy tenants of the lovely Dana Warp Mill, in Westbrook; and ADD VERB PRODUCTIONS moved into the old Center for Cultural Exchange, in Longfellow Square.

As the year winds down, may your own homes be constant and filled with only the most charming of dramas.

Theatrical progress As an avid theater-goer, there are times when I hanker to positively consume a fine play.

A smooth course A Midsummer Night's Dream is arguably the Bard's sultriest, silliest, and most gossamer comedy. As such, of course, it is also among the most oft-produced al fresco summer offerings in the whole canon.

Not horsing around When aborigines first encountered colonialists’ horses, according to Alan Strang’s mother, they believed that horse and rider were one being.

In brief It's spring, and time once again for Portland’s theatrical equivalent of the farmer’s market.

Relative orbits The gravities of the family Tyrone are many, and relentless.

Hedonism at its best In 1888, a 15-year-old French kid and a couple of his buddies wrote a script, modeling its gross and laughable anti-hero on a school teacher whom they had it in for.

Hollywood heels The exquisitely jaded Diane (Denise Poirier) describes her world as one in which Cobb salads are special-ordered with the intricacy and significance of Buddhist mandalas.

Aching leave Compared to the staid, changeless Irish village of Balleybeg, America seems like a “vast restless place,” a land of “impermanence and anonymity,” and a country where “nobody gives a damn about the past.”

Breast awareness The female breast is celebrated with such relish in the opening lines of Purple Breasts that it is all the more devastating to watch as one woman’s breast is stricken with cancer.

HOW TO DRESS A WOUND | October 24, 2014 Kayleen and Doug first meet when they’re both eight years old and in the school nurse’s office: She has a stomachache, and he has “broken his face” whilst riding his bike off the school roof. Their bond, though awkward and cantankerous, is thus immediately grounded in the grisly intimacy of trauma.

TRAUMATIC IRONY | October 15, 2014 A creaky old oceanfront Victorian. Three adult siblings who don’t like each other, plus a couple of spouses. A codicil to their father’s will that requires them to spend an excruciating week together in the house. And, of course, various ghosts.

OVEREXTENDED FAMILY | October 11, 2014 “I’m inclined to notice the ruins in things,” ponders Alfieri (Brent Askari). He’s recalling the downfall of a longshoreman who won’t give up a misplaced, misshapen love, a story that receives a superbly harrowing production at Mad Horse, under the direction of Christopher Price.

SOMETHING'S GOTTA FALL | October 11, 2014 While it hasn’t rained on the Curry family’s 1920’s-era ranch in far too long, the drought is more than literal in The Rainmaker .

SURPASSED MENAGERIE | October 03, 2014 Do Buggeln and Vasta make a Glass Menagerie out of Brighton Beach Memoirs? Well, not exactly.